“We talk about theatre museums filled with old costumes and things. What we also need is a theatre museum of the old routines on videotape. We are only the custodians of those techniques, and they should be preserved.”
Thoughtful feeling
Thoughtful Quotes — page 80 of 303
“I recommend that you try a little mental floss.”
“Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.”
“No one can take from us the joy of the first becoming aware of something, the so-called discovery. But if we also demand the honor, it can be utterly spoiled for us, for we are usually not the first. What does discovery mean, and who can say that he has discovered this or that? After all it's pure idiocy to brag about priority; for it's simply unconscious conceit, not to admit frankly that one is a plagiarist.”
“I always thought it better to allow myself to doubt before I decided, than to expose myself to the misery, after I had decided, of doubting whether I had decided rightly and justly.”
“The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.”
“It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world.”
“You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.”
“I write for myself, and perhaps for half a dozen friends. And that should be enough. And that might improve the quality of my writing. But if I were writing for thousands of people, then I would write what might please them. And as I know nothing about them, and maybe I'd have a rather low opinion of them, I don't think that would do any good to my work.”
“The things that are said in literature are always the same. What is important is the way they are said.”
“Not all who hesitate are lost. The psyche has many secrets in reserve. And these are not disclosed unless required.”
“The escalator seems to me to typify this: It leads us up, by climbing on our behalf. Yes, it doesn't even climb, it flies. Each step carries its shopper aloft, as though afraid he might change his mind. It takes us up to merchandise we might not have bothered to climb an ordinary flight of steps for.”
“The sooner we learn feelings are fickle, the better off we are.”
“At a Boston signing, someone from the audience asked why I was so obsessed with furniture in my books. The question rattled around in my head. I had no idea that I was obsessed with furniture.”
“How vain, without the merit, is the name.”
“I don't really judge. To each his own. You like what you like.”
“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”
“To set aside one’s prejudices, one’s present needs, and one’s own self interest in making a decision as a director for a company is an intellectual exercise that takes constant practice. In short, intellectual honesty is a journey and not a destination.”
“I don't show every picture that I have, I think discretion is also important.”
“It is always better to ask then to make an assumption.”